The French Revolution and What Went Wrong by Stephen Clarke

**An entertaining and eye-opening look at the French Revolution and what went wrong, by Stephen Clarke, author of 1000 Years of Annoying the French and A Year in the Merde.**

Legend has it that, in a few busy weeks in July 1789, a despotic king, his freeloading wife, and a horde of over-privileged aristocrats, were displaced and then humanely dispatched.
In the ensuing years, we are told, France was heroically transformed into an idyll of Liberté, Egalité and Fraternité.

In fact, as Stephen Clarke argues in his informative and eye-opening account of the French Revolution, almost all of this is completely untrue.

In 1789 almost no one wanted to oust King Louis XVI, let alone guillotine him.

While the Bastille was being stormed by out-of-control Parisians, the true democrats were at work in Versailles creating a British-style constitutional monarchy.

The founding of the Republic in 1792 unleashed a reign of terror that caused about 300,000 violent deaths.

And people hailed today as revolutionary heroes were dangerous opportunists, whose espousal of Liberté, Egalité and Fraternité did not stop them massacring political opponents and guillotining women for demanding equal rights.

Going back to original French sources, Stephen Clarke has uncovered the little-known and rarely told story of what was really happening in revolutionary France, as well as what went so tragically and bloodily wrong.

Stephen Clarke

Reviews

“ Tremendously entertaining ”

The Sunday Times (on 1000 Years of Annoying the French)

“ Combines Clarke’s brand of jaunty, bawdy humour with being genuinely informative about French history ”

Spectator (on Dirty Bertie: an English King Made in France)

“ Outrageously readable … based on extensive research with a wealth of enticing detail ”

Daily Mail (on How The French Won Waterloo - or Think They Did)

Trade Paperback

9781780895529

May 15, 2018

Century

592 pages

RRP $40.00
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The French Revolution and What Went Wrong

Stephen Clarke

Hardback

9781780895512

May 15, 2018

Century

592 pages

RRP $55.00
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The French Revolution and What Went Wrong

Stephen Clarke

EBook

9781473536661

May 3, 2018

Cornerstone Digital

592 pages
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